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By Steve Agbota
Concerns are mounting over the antics of foreigners who have reportedly snatched the ship chandling business from Nigerians and control 85 per cent of the lucrative market.
Ship chandlers are those who provide supplies and equipment for ships and fears are rife that local players in that space are on verge of extinction, as they are unable to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts.
With capacity issue and maritime politics playing the spoiler, industry records show that the federal government loses $10 billion annually as foreigners are determined to dominate the market and would not patronise indigenous ship chandlers.
Ship chandling business was established in Nigeria through an Act of parliament in 1958 and it was made up of retail dealers who specialise in supplies of equipment and goods for ships such as foodstuffs, crude oil, engine oil, water and many more.
However, today about 85 per cent of local ship chandlers are out of jobs as many of them now into clearing and forwarding and other menial jobs as the means of survival.
Speaking with Daily Sun, an operator, Kelvin Ejima said the Nigerian economy was losing huge sums of money to the foreign chandlers.
According to him, the continuous refusal of foreign ship operators to patronise local chandlers contravene the Local Content Act promulgated by the Federal Government to grow local companies, boost their capacity and create jobs.
“Some years ago, ship chandling was one of the operations in the maritime sector that generated foreign exchange into the government’s coffers because everything we do has to revolve around dollars. Today, the dollars are being taken back to foreign countries.
“The foreign counterparts have more financial muscle because they were supported by their governments to thrive. They have successfully chased us out of our business. And shipping companies chose the foreign chandlers over us despite local content giving us an upper hand. But the law is being pushed aside by these shipping companies and engaging the services of the foreigners,” he said.
He said the Nigerian ship chandlers are given 95 per cent authority to render services in the ships but foreigners have taken over the business.
He implored the Federal Government to make sure that the local content Act is wholly implemented in order to encourage local participation in the nation’s maritime, oil and gas sectors of the economy effectively.
Also speaking with Daily Sun, the National President, National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, said currently, ship chandling was facing a lot of challenges like capital base as a lot of indigenous ship chandlers have left the business.
“In the 60s, 70s and 80s, ship chandling business thrived within the port environment. But for now, it is not as booming as it used to be for the local chandlers. So there is a need for the government to intervene and see how they can have a supporting role because it is an area where a lot of foreign exchange can be repatriated back into the country,” he said.
He hinted that ship chandling business is supposed to be handled by Nigerians because they obtained their licenses from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
“The issue of foreign dominance is not only synonymous with ship chandling. If you go to Customs agents, you have the same problem.
The ship chandling business needs a kind of government participation to assist the local ship chandlers have more capital base to do this job,” he added.
